Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul began a three-day visit to New Hampshire with a question.

"Hey, anybody here think it's a good idea for the government to have all your phone records?" the Republican asked.

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"No!" people shouted back.

Paul, who was in Manchester opening his headquarters, played a key role in blocking the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. He talked to voters Friday night about reform in U.S. surveillance programs.

"I think I'll be the only candidate that really thinks the NSA has gone too far with the collection of all of our records [and that it] is really more consistent with a surveillance state than a democratic republic," he said.

Paul supporters thought such opinions set him apart from other candidates.

"Standing behind what he did with the Patriot Act and not have the NSA spying," Kim Goodwin said.

"Rand Paul is Rand Paul and what he says is him. He's not going to change," Pam Manney said.

Paul said he's confident his stance on the issue has helped him gain support from independent voters in the past week and help him in his bid for the presidency in 2016.

"We're the only one beating Hillary Clinton in four different states that all went for President Obama," he said.